Wilson rehabilitated

[readingrat]

I love House-Wilson interaction; IMO it's one of the best facets of the show. They're two contrasting, but eerily similar characters with wonderful banter, each having his individual note – the dialogue equivalent of counterpoint. Write RS Leonard out, and the show will die a lonely miserable death.

Accordingly, I was slightly put out to see so little of Wilson this season. The premiere episode was dedicated to Huddy – fair enough. But then? And when Wilson did turn up, he spouted a lot of stuff that seemed trite, unworthy of a man of his intelligence, lack-lustre. I know Doris Egan has left the crew, but at times I felt there's better 'Wilson' in fanfiction than among the paid writers. I really couldn't see how this could be justified as anything other than careless writing or lack of imagination. But then 'Small Sacrifices' aired, and Wilson clicked into place in my mental puzzle.

The bump that smoothed out the easiest, being the most logical one, was the one of Wilson's decreased presence. We see things from House's pov, who, obsessive as usual, was putting all of his energy into dealing with his new relationship. The older that got, the more we saw of Wilson.

The value of Wilson's advice, 'give in to your girl-friend and lie to her, then you'll get sex', was more of a problem. For one, it didn't seem very solid to me, for another, it seemed far below what one can reasonably expect of a person who in the past has shown himself to be fairly percipient in analyzing others – he pretty much had Cameron nailed down for what she was right from the start. Turns out that my first objection doesn't count, because life at PPTH follows other laws of human behaviour than my own. Wilson's advice, if the last episode is any sort of proof, works on the females that populate his world. Being honest to your girls gets you kicked out of their beds and possibly out of their lives.

The second objection collapsed when it became clear that Wilson has different views on what constitutes a relationship than I do (or House does, for that matter). Wilson talks about 'relationships', but he means 'sex without paying for it'. (I guess I'm a bit dense about these things because I'm a lazy, selfish ass. I'd never bother with all the hassles that a relationship entails – sharing space, making time for my s.o., adjusting my habits – just for the sake of sex.) Seen from that perspective, his advice is solid – if you want uncomplicated sex, tell the other person what they want to hear. When he proposed to Sam it finally hit me with the force of a lorry running into a brick wall that Wilson didn't care a damn about her. Our verbally skilled head of oncology suddenly couldn't think of a single reason why he'd want to marry her other than what his best friend said in praise of her earlier on. Furthermore, if his friend hadn't expressed admiration for his girl-friend's cavalier interpretation of standard radiation dosage, it wouldn't have occurred to him to approve of her professional conduct. In short, Wilson had no idea why he was proposing. Accordingly, his reaction to being ditched was fairly low-key.

A few people complained about House's lack of empathy for Wilson – why was he more interested in screwing his girl-friend than in comforting his best friend who could be expected to break down and smash mirrors like the last time Sam left him? House was not interested in comforting Wilson because Wilson didn't look as though he needed much solace. Wilson slouched in and flopped onto the couch with the air of someone who's had a hard day, but not with the symptoms of a broken heart. Did any glass break? Did he look wasted? Did he look as though he needed to get wasted? Not really. That will hardly have escaped the notice of House, the guy who knows better than Wilson does about the pitfalls between the condo and PPTH and the age of Wilson's tires.

What struck me as curious in that scene was Wilson's surprise on hearing that House had embraced his advice and apologized to Cuddy. He was definitely astonished that House did as he had suggested; it even seemed to me that he wasn't particularly delighted. (Ditto when House first revealed his relationship with Cuddy to Wilson: complete disbelief at first, even when Cuddy didn't bother to deny it, then grudging belief and a certain lack of enthusiasm for an entanglement that he'd supposedly been rooting for these last two years or so.) So he gave advice on the assumption that it wouldn't be followed. Did he give the relationship-saving advice despite this assumption or because of it? Meaning: if House's default mode is doing exactly the opposite of what Wilson advises, then the best way to make sure the relationship with Cuddy is of short duration is to tell him to take the steps that will save it. That sounds pretty horrible. It isn't really, though. For one thing, it was House's choice to ask for advice, moreover the results of following it or ignoring it are entirely on him. For another, I don't think, even if what I just described was really what happened, that it was a conscious process. Consciously, Wilson probably believed that he was telling House to apologize in the hope that for once House would do as he said and get things straightened out with Cuddy. His subconscious, however, might have been banking on something totally different.

Wilson going mushy over Sam and being uncommonly staid and stupid in every other respect is irritating. Wilson, dampened because House is drifting away from him, sabotaging House and Cuddy subconsciously even as he superficially tries to solidify his 'thing' with his sex interest is far more exciting. Now that Sam is gone, it will be interesting to look out for clues supporting or refuting my assumptions.